Situational awareness – August 15, 2018

Good Wednesday morning from Salt Lake City.

Operation Rio Grande. Omarosa’s revenge blitz continues. Twitter suspends Alex Jones.

  TICK TOCK   

  • 55 days until the last day to register to vote by mail (10/9/2018)
  • 62 days until mail-in ballots are sent to voters (10/16/2018)
  • 69 days until in-person early voting begins (10/23/2018)
  • 76 days until the last day to register to vote in person or by mail (10/30/2018)
  • 78 days until in-person early voting ends (11/2/2018)
  • 83 days until the 2018 midterm elections (11/6/2018)
  • 166 days until the first day of the 2019 Utah Legislature (1/28/2019)
  • 211 days until the final day of the 2019 Utah Legislature (3/14/2019)
  • 811 days until the 2020 presidential election (11/3/2020)

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  HERE ARE THE STORIES YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO TODAY  

Operation Rio Grande

As the effort to combat homelessness in Salt Lake City passes the one-year mark, officials say there’s still much to be done – http://bit.ly/2BbgYr9

Education funding

A new study finds Utah is falling behind on efforts to fund programs to help at-risk students – http://bit.ly/2BaBeZM


  OTHER UTAH HEADLINES   

Salt Lake Tribune

Editorial: Not in my back yard? Then Utah’s growth problems will show up at the front door

Holladay residents, hoping to block a high-density development on the former Cottonwood Mall site, file a lawsuit seeking a special election

Crime is down in Salt Lake City, but police say Operation Rio Grande shifted homeless people to other areas

Psst. Want to buy some surplus land? Utah’s transportation department has so much, it doesn’t have a full inventory yet.

President Trump signs legislation, sponsored by Utah lawmakers, to create 911-style suicide hotline

On tap for year 2 of Operation Rio Grande? Stop the dispersement of drug dealing and find jobs for people who are homeless.

Salt Lake City to ask residents whether it should spend $87 million on road repairs

Deseret News

Op-ed: Utah and Salt Lake City need to rethink scooters

Jay Evensen: Scooters are everywhere, but don’t set fire to them yet

Editorial: The U.S. may need a ‘Space Force,’ but not today

Defense bill to transfer federal land for USU space dynamics research

No ‘mission accomplished,’ but Operation Rio Grande successes celebrated

Idaho nuclear power plant ‘game changing’ for Utah?

No stars upon thars: Utah drivers’ licenses could cause problems at airport

Decision about USTAR’s fate delayed

Road Home continues hearings with lawmakers about response to critical audit

Salt Lake City voters will decide fate of $87 million bond to fill ‘enormous financial pothole’

Trump signs Hatch, Stewart suicide prevention hotline bill


  NATIONAL HEADLINES  

  • The Trump administration files for arbitration against Omarosa Manigault Newman, claiming she violated a non-disclosure agreement – https://politi.co/2BdgK2H
  • Omarosa is claiming, without offering evidence, that President Trump knew about Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails before their release by Wikileaks – http://bit.ly/2BjJGWC
  • Omarosa releases audio of a phone call among Trump campaign aides discussing the fallout from a possible tape of Trump using the n-word – https://cbsn.ws/2BcYK8B
  • White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders won’t guarantee that President Trump has not used the n-word, but she says she’s never heard him use it – https://cnn.it/2BaaJny
  • White House staffers are “terrified” of what new recordings Omarosa Manigault Newman may release publicly as her post-employment media blitz continues – https://politi.co/2B7Qk2l
  • Twitter suspends Alex Jones for violating their terms. Jones is not allowed to post on Twitter for seven days – https://cnb.cx/2Bd04bz
     
  • Democrats in Vermont nominate Christine Hallquist for Governor. She becomes the first transgender gubernatorial candidate nominated by a major political party – https://abcn.ws/2Bal5DC
  • The Senate Intelligence Committee is getting pushback from the US Treasury Department as they try to follow the money in their investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election –  http://bit.ly/2BoBEfx
  • The Trump administration is expected to release a report soon on reforming the US Postal Service – http://bit.ly/2BcAqnd
  • Turkey slapped new tariffs on U.S. products as a dispute over a detained U.S. pastor escalated – https://on.wsj.com/2BfjZXq

  • The ACLU claims a Boston-area US Immigration office worked with ICE officials to arrest undocumented immigrant spoused married to US citizens when they came to the office to interview for legal status – https://cnn.it/2BdiB7F
  • Nebraska used the powerful opioid fentanyl to carry out the state’s first execution since voters overturned a ban on the death penalty in 2016 – https://nyti.ms/2BcZb2J

  ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY   

  • 1519 – Panama City, Panama is founded.
  • 1824 – The Marquis de Lafayette arrives in New York and begins a tour of 24 states.
  • 1935 – Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska.
  • 1939 – The Wizard of Oz premiers at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles.
  • 1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, and event regarded as the birth of stadium rock.
  • 1969 – The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opened on Max Yasgur’s farm near Bethel, New York, drawing an estimated 400,000 people for three days of music.
  • 1970 – Patricia Palinkas becomes the first woman to play professionally in an American football game.
  • 1973 – Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends.

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